When it was about three, the nearly asleep Nanfeng was jolted awake by an unusual alarm.

“Who’s there?” Nanfeng yelled loudly as he suddenly jumped out of the bushes.

Could it be that woman named Bai?

He pushed open the branches to reveal the trap that was set earlier. The trap had showed signs of tamper, as if someone had indeed fallen unsuspectingly into it, yet no one was captured in it. There was something shining in the darkness which Nanfeng picked up and studied. It was a beautifully embroidered shoe.

“Gao-boy! Look!”

Nanfeng yelled and Gao-boy wriggled out of a tree. “Sup? A moun’in puppy?”

“A woman! Look, a shoe!”

On the side of the embroidered shoes, a few, tiny stitched words could be seen in the darkness – produced by the Prince Consort Residence.

“It’s from the Prince Consort Residence.”

“It must be from that Bai woman!” Nanfeng was delighted, “She must’ve just passed and almost got caught in the trap. That whore.”

The men at the checkpoint were also alerted by their loud yells. “Nanfeng, what’s wrong?”

“Boss, that Bai woman is in this forest. Got ‘er shoe.”

All of their impatience, laziness and exhaustion completely evaporated in a single moment upon discovering of the embroidered shoes. Everyone started to get excited, “Hehe, now they’re in the forest. They can’t escape.”

Two dogs about half the height of men were brought over. They sniffed the embroidered shoes and immediately moved restlessly about, almost snapping the collars on their necks.

The boss freed the dogs. “Go!”

The dogs were released and furiously dashed deeper into the forest.

The night wind was freezing, but everyone’s excitement had flared right up.

“Heh, go, ma bros!”

“No, let da boss go first!”

“Get da two little sluts!”

The sword came out of their scabbards, their cold reflections of light flashing. Huge shadows spilled into the forest, chasing after the agile figures of their hunting dogs.

“Surround ‘em!”

“Don’t let ‘em get away!”

They sweated hard as they chased to the mouth of the spring. The dogs that had been barking all the way suddenly dipped their heads into the water, drinking in large, furious gulps.

“Continue chasing! Why are they drinking water at this kind of time?” The dogs were kicked until they howled in pain, but they refused to leave the mouth of the spring.

They couldn’t help it. Pingting had purposely left a special herbal powder in the shoe. Those who sniffed the substance would have their noses inflamed, making them feel like their insides were burning. This made them wildly search for the closest water source near them.

When the rest of the group had arrived at the river, they too saw the two hunting dogs drinking water furiously. They were completely taken aback, “Where are they? Why aren’t we chasing?” They happened to trod on the rock that Pingting had set as the device trigger. Their words had not yet fully dawned when the first round began to fly with the wind towards them.

“Ah!” An arrow lodged itself into Qi-boy’s shoulder. He screamed in shock.

“Sneak attack! Bastards, those whores have crossbows!” The crowd of people were furious. They bent down to cover themselves when the arrows paused.

A few raised their heads and heard another gust of wind.

“Careful!”

In the darkness, they did not know how many arrows were flying. They thought swords were enough to capture the two women, Pingting and Zuiju, who didn’t have bows with them and therefore didn’t have the ability of long distance combat. They began to yell angrily.

“The sluts are firing more arrows!”

“When we capture ‘er, we ‘av to make their life worse than death!”

But these arrows did not go very far and began to drop before reaching the spring. The boss was more experienced and muttered, “They’re shooting while retreating. Chase ‘em!”

The thousand men trampled across the stream, armed with their knives and swords. They splashed everywhere as they crossed the stream. They barely arrived on the other side when the third round of arrows began even further away.

“Chase ‘em quick!”

“Sons of a donkey, so fast!”

The crowd scattered in all directions to surround their target, camouflaging themselves and their weapons in the forest. The arrows did not stop. They point in the direction where they ran, but the accuracy had greatly decreased. Apart from the arrow that had pierced into the unprepared Qi-boy, no one else was hurt. The agitated men angrily dashed. The more they dashed, the angrier they became. They thought of ways to punish those insolent women when they were caught.

After the seventh round of arrows, there was no longer any movement.

Nanfeng smirked evilly. “Hehe, they’ve run out of arrows. Bros, take ‘em on!”

All of their hearts settled for a moment before they felt a wave of excitement. They had been stationed here for a long time and were already familiar with the terrain. Where else could those two women go now that the path before them was a dead end? They began to close their circle when an unusual expression leaked onto Nanfeng’s gleeful face. “My foot...” A tingling feeling began to run up his leg. His iron sword crashed into the stone as he held his foot. His expression was twisted. “It tickles, tickles, aaaah!” He inserted his hand into his boots. It was as painful as if a layer of skin had been forcefully peeled off. He screamed.

The boss furiously roared, “Why’re ya pretendin’ to be a monkey, Nanfeng? Ah...” He suddenly felt the same strange sensation on his own foot.

At first it was just a mild itch, but soon it became a pain difficult to supress.

All of the others fell to the ground one by one, screaming as they clutched onto their feet.

“Ow...ah...those sluts...’urts! Those sluts put poison!”

Conversation was stuttered through the beast-like screams and the hideously twisted expressions.

The boss trembled in pain. He still wanted to itch that place, but it was far too painful. He gritted his teeth, “Who’s protecting the checkpoint?”

“All...all of us bros came to ‘elp o...wh...damn, it hurts...who guarded the checkpoint?” Qi-boy was the most unfortunate of them all. His foot had been poisoned in addition to the light injury on his shoulder. His nails had clawed long lines of blood. Enduring such pain was a tough battle in its own way.

“Damn it, we got played!”

The sky’s colour was to brighten soon; its gray light appeared to be the sky’s brows, lifting into a smirk of ridicule.

No wonder the Senior Official had warned them so many times to not underestimate that woman named Bai.